I think much of how hard black is to keep looking great is what the water is like in the water you most often boat. Our lake has water that is very clear, but seems to have quite a bit of lime and maybe iron in the water.

So even while out on the water for the day, the black of our boat get lots of water spots. And yes if when we take it out for the day we wipe it down with vinegar/water or one of the wax products, then it looks great. Now with it on a cradle in the boathouse or on the trailer, if our lower hull was black, it would be a whippin' to wipe it all down and keep it looking nice.

We took a trip up to southeastern oklahoma this summer (broken bow) and the water was very clear and must have few minerals in the water as we left the boat in a rental slip for 4 night and while out on the water everyday, we had NO water spots.

So keeping black looking beautiful black is IMO very driven by the water quality.

We took the middle ground and went white lower hull and black sides.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

(Beautiful boat BTW),

Yeah, If we had a lift like yours, black WOULD be tougher. In our case, our boat stays in the water until the lift takes it out so we never have to look at the hull for long. But our water is muddier so the white hull gets than tannish brown line that I DESPISE. I was hoping the black or grey hull could hide it. The dealer is trying to talk me into another white hull. Not sure if I want to go there or not.

Never been an issue, does it get hot, yeah, but no hotter than the vinyl sitting in the sun. On the 25, you have a walk through, never really standing on the gunwale anyway. I have the BTS, so my arm is always sitting on the black. (Arm hanging out of the window) Never an issue.

Fiberglass platform all the way for me, the new ones are really nice, sits right on the water, the gray pad is nice, no maintenance.